Police officer shoots lizard after it kills chicken

By: David Ross
(Scroll down for video) A lizard messed with the wrong chicken, causing its death.

Wild animals are known to eat other animals as their meals, but police officers in Connecticut respond angrily to a lizard that found his prowl in a residential area.

Police in Ledyard, were called at 3:30 pm after a resident reported seeing what she thought was a “crocodile” in her chicken coop.

When police and animal control arrived, they found a monitor lizard that had killed at least one chicken. Police believed that it was trying to kill other chickens.
Rather than saving the animal and releasing it into wild, the officer killed it.

“Based on the information we gathered about the lizard and its proximity to people, the officer decided to kill the lizard to control the situation. Due to the risk to livestock, pets, and human life, the officer was forced to use a firearm to mitigate the threat,” police Lt. Michael T. Finkelstein said.

Police said this is not the first time they received a report of a monitor lizard in the area.
Police are warning people against having a lizard as a pet. The reptile is “extremely dangerous” and people should not have them as pets, police said.

Finkelstein believes the lizard might have been someone’s pet that either escaped from its owner or grew so large that the owner decided to release it.
Police are investigating and are trying to find its owner.